❝ it doesn't take much to be a good person. ❞
"I DON'T WANT TO talk to Robby Keene ever again in my life."
With those words, Ayane walked past Sam and went straight upstairs.
Ayane didn't care how sorry Robby said he was, because he had hurt Miguel. And that was something Ayane didn't know if she could forgive him for.
And to make her mood even better, now Ayane had to think of a way to get her dad on board with covering the cost of Miguel's surgery.
She could go talk to Liana, and maybe find a way from her. Ennis was not exactly Ayane's go to person at the moment.
But it would not hurt to ask.
Ayane picked up her phone and dialed the correctional facility.
"Hi, can I speak to Ennis Cain?"
She was put on hold for a few minutes, until someone finally answered again.
"Who's this?" Ayane recognized her dad's voice.
"I-It's Ayane. I have a question."
There was a pause. "What do you want?" Ennis finally replied.
Ayane hesitated. "Um, well I don't know if you've heard about the school fight. Miguel- he got kicked off of a second story balcony."
"I did hear," Ennis replied, "your mother told me. This girl you fought, who is she?"
Ayane closed her eyes briefly. "She's crazy is what she is. I don't really know why she started the fight, but- that isn't why I'm talking to you. Miguel has to have surgery for his back and it's going to cost a lot. More than his family can cover."
"And you want me to pay it off," Ennis said knowingly.
She was quiet for a moment.
"Well... yeah."
"Give me a reason as to why I should do that," he said, his tone monotonous.
Ayane clenched her jaw. "Maybe you could just do it out of the kindness of your heart, you ever think of that? It doesn't take much to be a good person."
Ennis went silent for awhile, until Ayane was beginning to wonder if he had hung up.
"Fine. I'll pay for it."
She breathed a sigh of relief, until Ennis continued, "Under one condition."
Ayane swore in her head. She wanted to punch this man.
"What?" she snapped, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"You join Cobra Kai."
She began to laugh, turning around wildly with disbelief.
"You are crazy," Ayane said with exasperation. "You deserve to stay in prison for the rest of your life!"
"Think what you want," Ennis replied lazily. "But that's my offer. Join Cobra Kai with Kreese and I'll pay off the surgery."
She shook her head, hitting the wall of her bedroom.
"I can't just join Cobra Kai. I live with the LaRusso's, they'll never go for that."
Ennis replied, "So move out. Your mother will take you back."
Ayane paced around her room, still shaking her head. She couldn't even bring herself to be surprised, though.
After she did not reply for awhile, Ennis continued, "So? What's it going to be?"
Ayane tapped her foot rapidly on the ground, staring a hole into the wall. If she could have just reached through the phone and strangled her father...
But she had to do it. For Miguel.
She drew in a sharp breath, glaring hard.
"Fine."
. . . .
SAM WAS WAKING AYANE up the next morning, much to Ayane's disliking.
"Ayane, get up! I thought of a way we can raise money for Miguel!"
At once, Ayane stirred. She sat up, yawning and rubbing her eyes.
"What are you talking about?"
Sam sat on the edge of Ayane's bed, excitedly telling her the idea she had.
"Well, I was thinking we could do a car wash! You know, as a fundraiser."
Ayane was actually intrigued with this idea. Anything to keep her from having to join Cobra Kai, at least.
"A car wash..." Ayane thought for a moment, yawning again. "Yeah, okay."
Sam grinned. "Yay! Oh, and make sure you wear a bikini top."
Before Ayane could ask questions, Sam stood up and walked out of her room.
An hour later, Ayane was changed into denim shorts and a black bikini top with flip flops, arriving with Sam to an empty lot.
The other Miyagi-Do students arrived, setting up posters with Miguel's face on them to advertise for this car wash.
"Do you know if this is going to work?" Ayane asked Sam, frowning a little.
Sam smiled reassuringly. "Hey, try to be positive! If all else fails, we can do a lemonade stand next."
Ayane mustered up a smile, nodding.
"Sure. Hey- is that the cheer squad?"
They both turned, seeing Moon and other cheerleaders arriving.
"Yep! Moon agreed to help us out."
Not too much later, cars were pulling in and putting everyone to work. Ayane had never done a car wash before, but from what Moon told her it was basically just an excuse for people to look at teenage girls in swimsuits.
Things were going pretty well, Ayane had to admit. That is, until Hawk and his friends showed up.
They were all on motorcycles. Ayane rolled her eyes, crossing her arms and watching them.
Sam walked up to Ayane. "Something wrong?"
Ayane nodded her head, gesturing to the Cobra Kai kids. "What the hell are they doing here?"
Sam frowned. "I... don't know. Just ignore them. They're probably just here to try and start something."
Looking at them a moment longer, Ayane finally turned around and found a new car to wash.
Not too long after, Ayane's phone began buzzing. She pulled it out of her pocket and saw that Miguel was trying to FaceTime her.
Ayane answered, pulling her sunglasses down.
"Hey," he said, furrowing his eyebrows. "What are you doing? Why is it so loud?"
She grinned. "I can't quite tell you. So instead, you can talk to me. How do you feel? Nervous?"
Miguel chewed his inner lip, shrugging. "I don't know. I mean, yeah, I'm nervous. But I'm trying to be hopeful."
Ayane nodded, her smile faltering a little.
"It's going to be fine," she reassured. "I'll come see you as soon as they let me."
Miguel smiled softly. "Okay. Now why can't you tell me what you're doing?"
She smirked. "It's top secret, Mr. Diaz. I'll tell you later."
He was about to reply when Miguel was interrupted, looking away from his phone screen for a moment.
Miguel turned his head back to her, sighing. "It's time for me to go."
Ayane nodded. "Okay. Hey, you're gonna be fine." She hesitated, wondering if she should add what else she was thinking.
"I-I love you."
Miguel was rather surprised by the words. He had not heard her say that since before the school fight.
"I love you too," he replied, smiling one more time.
They hung up, and Ayane could feel a knot of anxiety form in her stomach. She wanted everything to go well for him more than she had wanted anything ever.
At around four o'clock, they cleaned up all of the supplies and Sam and Ayane went back to the LaRusso's.
As nighttime came around, the doorbell rang. Ayane went from the kitchen to get it, Sam following behind her a moment later.
She opened the door, finding the Miyagi-Do kids all standing there.
Ayane noted their distressed looks, frowning.
"What's wrong?"
"Cobra Kai took the money," Demetri explained, shaking his head.
Then, Nathaniel came from behind him with a battered face.
"And they beat the fucking shit out of me."
Ayane exchanged a look with Sam. Cobra Kai was the very bane of her existence, and she couldn't believe Ennis wanted her to join.
But before Ayane could sit around long enough to decide to do anything about it, she got a text from Carmen, letting Ayane know Miguel's surgery had gone well.
Sam came into her room again, standing at the doorway.
"Can we talk?" she asked.
Ayane looked up from her phone, nodding after a moment.
"Sure. What do you wanna talk about?"
Sam sat on Ayane's bed, pulling her legs into a crisscross.
"We can't keep letting Cobra Kai push us around. I-I know my dad won't teach us because Miyagi-Do's been given a bad name, but I thought that maybe... we could do it. I mean, we both know everything we need to know, enough to teach the others-"
"Sam," Ayane cut her off, sighing. "I don't think it's a good idea. I know how much it means to you, but I just... I don't want to get involved with this again. Not after the school fight, and what happened to Miguel. I don't want to be a part of some rivalry that keeps getting people hurt."
Sam frowned, shaking her head. "I don't understand- we need to keep learning how to defend ourselves from them. So maybe, maybe we can stop this thing once and for all. Don't you remember who started the fight?"
"And don't you remember who kicked Miguel off a balcony?" Ayane snapped back, perhaps with more attitude than she should have.
Sam looked taken aback for a moment.
"Robby didn't mean to-"
"Miguel showed him mercy," Ayane continued. "And Robby turned around and did the exact opposite."
Sam stood up, glaring down at Ayane. "That's very hypocritical of you, you know. You act like you didn't knock Tory unconscious."
Ayane stood up too, causing Sam to take a step back.
"And I regret what I did," Ayane said with a trembling voice, "which is why I don't want to be involved with any of this anymore. I don't care about Miyagi-Do, I don't care about Cobra Kai. I just want to be left alone!"
With that, Ayane shut the door in Sam's face.
She turned around, leaning against the door for a moment before suddenly bursting into tears. Ayane sat down with her back to the door, covering her face in her hands.
Ayane felt guilty, scared, and overwhelmed. She didn't know if Miguel would ever be able to walk again and Ayane felt like it was all her fault.
It was another sleepless night for her. Ayane was afraid to go to sleep, fearing that same recurring dream.
At the crack of dawn, Ayane pushed back the covers and got out of bed, going downstairs to get something to drink.
Carmen was keeping her updated on Miguel. He had been asleep ever since his surgery, which Ayane was admittedly jealous of. She needed sleep badly.
Ayane did not see Sam all morning, suspecting that the girl was avoiding her.
She quickly found that was not the case, however, when Ayane went to the dojo to practice with the punching bag and found Sam and the other Miyagi-Do students out there.
Sam turned to her as Ayane walked out.
"Ayane-"
The girl looked at all of them, shaking her head.
"Please don't say anything," Sam said. "I'll respect if you don't want to be a part of this but please just don't mention this to my parents."
Ayane inhaled slowly. "Fine."
She turned to walk away when Demetri said, "Ayane?"
Closing her eyes briefly, Ayane turned back to him. "What?"
Demetri gave her a look. "Why don't you want to be in Miyagi-Do anymore?"
Ayane clasped her hands together, shaking her head slowly.
"It's not that I don't want to be here anymore. I just- I need a break."
Before Demetri could reply, Ayane turned around and walked away as fast as she could.
Since Ayane couldn't hang around aimlessly at the dojo, she convinced Amanda to take her to the hospital to see Miguel.
"I'll pick you up in an hour," Amanda said before driving off.
Ayane went up to Miguel's floor, the nurses simply nodding and allowing her by.
She walked into his room casually, pulling up a chair next to a surprised Miguel and sitting down.
"Come right in," Miguel said sarcastically, smiling over at her.
Ayane rolled her eyes with a smile. "You seem to be in a good mood. How did it go?"
Miguel shrugged. "I don't know. I still can't feel anything. Has anything new happened?"
A lot, Ayane thought, pushing the thought away.
"Nothing much. I've been thinking about... taking a break from karate."
Miguel frowned. "What? Why?"
She leaned back in the chair, shrugging. "I guess I'm just a little shaken up, still. Maybe I just need some time."
He looked at her for a long time, saddened by this. Miguel didn't want Ayane to quit karate. She just didn't seem like the same person without it.
"If that's what you want," Miguel finally replied, dropping his head on the pillow.
Ayane furrowed her eyebrows. "What's wrong?"
Miguel stared up at the ceiling for a long time.
"What if my surgery didn't work? What if I can never walk again?"
His words crushed Ayane, turning that knot of guilt in her stomach. She reached over for his hand.
"Don't think like that. Hey, remember what happened to Rhodey in Captain America? He learned how to walk again."
Miguel looked over at her, touched by her attempt even though she was not exactly accurate.
"Rhodey was permanently paralyzed," he replied, squinting.
"Oh." Ayane glanced away rather awkwardly. "Well... then you can be even better than him by learning how to walk again. Because you will learn."
"You bet your ass he will."
Ayane and Miguel both turned, seeing none other than Johnny walking into the hospital room.
He looked at Miguel with a curt nod, then looked down at Ayane.
"And you, Ayannie, are gonna help me."
NOTES!
i meant to publish this yesterday yall i'm sorry,, anyway what do yall think about ayane's decision to take a break from karate? and do you think she still might have to end up joining cobra kai?? 🌝